This invention relates to fire protection equipment and more particularly to a device to protect books, printings, art treasures or equipment in the event of a fire.
All too often, the heaviest damage done to books, paintings, museum treasures and delicate machinery, during library, art gallery, museum, and other building fires is not from fire itself but from water and smoke. Water has been and still will be the basic agent used to fight those fires. Unfortunately, water is also the major enemy of books, paintings, museum objects and delicate machinery such as computers and magnetic tapes. Presently, some of those water and smoke damaged articles can be saved and restored, however, the costs of the restoration are very high and many of the damages are permanent. Although almost all masterpieces are insured against lost or damage due to fire or theft, they are one of a kind items and once they are destroyed by water during fire, that is the end of that article. The insurance money can only compensate against monetary losses. One would only wonder how can we afford for so long to risk one of a kind priceless books, paintings, and treasures to such a great danger without doing something to protect them.
The present invention will protect those articles against water and smoke damage and will afford limited protection against fire and heat damage in the event of a fire disaster. A fire retarded, water proof protector curtain is placed on top of those articles to be protected. When fire breaks out, the curtain is automatically deployed and covers the articles to prevent them from water and smoke damage. This protection curtain can be a low cost standard production package for general library usage. It can also be a custom designed package to compliment the interior design of a fine art gallery or a modern art museum. This will be the cheapest insurance protection against those damages. In addition, the reduction in the regular insurance costs after the installation of this system may even pay for itself and save money in the long run.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a releasable protective curtain system in the event of a fire for books, paintings and the like.
It is another object of the invention to provide a device which is used in association with existing fire alarm devices.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a protective curtain which is fire and water resistant.
It is a further object of this invention to control the rate of deployment of the protective curtain.
In accordance with the present invention a protective curtain assembly is positioned atop or over an article(s) to be protected against loss via fire. The curtain assembly is deployed in the event of a fire, guards against fire and smoke damage and also affords protection against water damage due to the efforts to extinguish the fire.
The protective curtain assembly comprises a base plate, a curtain attached to the base plate at one end, a casing attached to the other end of the curtain and into which the curtain is folded when not in use, and a deployment mechanism for releasing the curtain and casing so that the curtain covers the object of value in the event of a fire. The protective curtain assembly further includes two safety features to prevent injury to anyone situated beneath the curtain when it deploys. The first is protective padding along the bottom of the casing and the second is a spool having one end of a safety cable wrapped therearound, and the other end extending through a series of pulleys at each corner of the casing. In this manner, when the casing is released from the base plate, safety cable is unwound from the spool at a predetermined rate to allow time for an individual to move away from under the curtain.